Digital Humanities Initiative finds new home at ASU's Lincoln Center

The Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics at Arizona State University is now the home of the newly reconstituted and reimagined Digital Humanities Initiative (DHI). The initiative, with new funding from The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, will be led by the DHI Steering Committee, directed by Elizabeth Grumbach, with faculty representatives Sarah Florini and Michael Tueller.

“I’m thrilled about the revisioning of this initiative because we’ll not only be supporting humanities faculty and graduate students that are seeking applied knowledge of digital humanities, but also exploring possibilities to undertake research development in the future of technology through the lens of the humanities and ethics," said Grumbach, who supports the Lincoln Center as the manager of digital humanities and research. "The support we have from both ASU Lincoln and the Division of Humanities are giving our scholarly community the opportunity to do both, simultaneously, for perhaps the first time at ASU.”

DHI first began in 2018 as an initiative housed in the Institute for Humanities Research to provide digital humanities mentoring and professional development opportunities to the ASU humanities community. The newly reimagined program will award competitive scholarships to students in the humanities and examine critical humanities questions as they relate to digital phenomena.

“The study of the humanities is continually evolving; as human culture changes, scholars train their interpretive lens on each new development — and, similarly, as more tools become available, humanities scholars employ them to broaden and enrich their view of the world's literature, history and more,” said Tueller, director and professor of the classics for the School of International Letters and Cultures. “Students who choose ASU for a humanities degree expect that they will approach their field using the latest and most innovative methods: Digital humanities fits perfectly into that expectation.”

As part of the Lincoln Center, the DHI will continue this tradition of highlighting innovative digital scholarship in the humanities at ASU in monthly meetups, and will also be launching a professional development opportunity/partnership with the Digital Humanities Summer Institute, an annual training event that takes place at the University of Victoria.

“Digital humanities is not only a means of bringing digital tools to bear on humanities-based research," said Florini, who also serves as the associate director of the Lincoln Center. "It is also a space where humanities approaches can be used to make sense of the increasingly complex ways technology is shaping our culture. The humanities has long and rich traditions of thought that can provide crucial insight into the social impacts of technology, and the DHI will foster those lines of inquiry.”

The partnership will provide scholarship recipients the opportunity to attend the institute in Victoria, British Columbia, during the summer and develop their own research projects among leaders in the field of digital humanities.

“I'm so happy that ASU is partnering with (DHSI),” Tueller said. “There it will be possible for ASU scholars — both graduate students and faculty — to learn from top experts the techniques that best serve their particular projects.”

Starting this Friday, Sept. 22, students can join leaders of the DHI for DH Coffee Hour, a monthly event that will give the ASU community opportunities for professional development and to present research and scholarship in the field.

“In the coming months, we’ll be pushing out information on how faculty, staff and graduate students can apply to receive a DHSI tuition scholarship,” Grumbach said. “With this new home, digital humanities at ASU is poised to become a leader in digital humanities and science and technology studies, and we look forward to forging new and generative relationships.”

To learn more about this initiative, RSVP here to attend the first virtual coffee hour, or visit the Lincoln Center website to sign up for their monthly newsletter.